Twisted
by fanwriter1245
Summary: Kassidy Harding was forced to go with her father after her parents split up. She would love nothing more than to continue chasing storms with her mom. When she goes with her dad to make the divorce official, Kassidy may just get her chance to do what she always wanted. As the three of them chase tornadoes, they will be brought back together by the very thing that tore them apart.
1. Returning

**My very first story where there are no pairings and focuses on a family. The trend won't last long.**

* * *

As Kassidy rode in the back of her dad's truck with him and his fiancée, Melissa, she just wished that the entire situation she had been forced into was completely different.

Kassidy was angry with both of parents and had been ever since they decided to split up when she was in middle school. Now seventeen years old, she was still angry with both of them. Her father for taking her with him when he knew she wanted to stay with her mom, and her mother for not doing something about it.

"Um, honey, are you sure she's gonna be here?" Melissa asked Bill.

"If I know Jo, she's already dragged her entire department into the field. A day like today, it's to be expected. She forgets everything except her work."

"You're nervous about seeing her, aren't you?"

"Nervous? No. Why, do I look nervous?"

"No. Well, yeah you do, a little."

"I just want to get it over with."

 _You and me both_ , Kassidy thought with disdain.

"But she said she signed the papers, right?" Melissa asked.

"That's what she said."

"You don't think so?"

"No, I think so. Give me a kiss." He leaned over and kissed Melissa tenderly. Kassidy wanted to vomit. It's not that she hated Melissa, she just hated the fact that she was engaged to her father. Only one person belonged with him, and it certainly wasn't her.

"Kassidy, you're awful quiet back there," Bill threw back to his daughter.

 _Like you care_ , Kassidy thought to herself. "Because I don't have anything to say," she said instead.

"Excited to see Mom?"

"Whatever."

Bill passed off her shortness to typical teenage behavior, but he had no idea just what kind of feelings she was harboring inside.

They pulled up, and Kassidy did feel a bit of nostalgia as she saw the old team together.

"What do you know? Storm chasers," Bill said with a hint of sarcasm in his words. He got out of the truck and everyone got really excited seeing their friend. Dusty, one of her favorites, came over and hugged him.

Kassidy climbed out of the back and stood by the truck.

"I don't believe it!" Dusty exclaimed. "Kassie?!"

"Hey, Dusty," Kassidy said with a small laugh as the man came over and hugged her tightly.

"You've gotten so big! And your hair's gotten so darn long!"

Kassidy tossed some of her golden tresses over her shoulder. "Time flies!"

Melissa walked over to them with a shy smile.

"Dusty, I'd like you to meet Melissa," Bill introduced. "Melissa, this is Dusty. Dustman's been chasing with us ever since we started. Listen, man, where's Jo?"

"She's over by the Doppler," Dusty pointed. "Broke down again, running out of grant money."

"Honey, why don't you hang out here for a little while, I'll—I'll be right back."

"Okay," Melissa answered.

"Dusty, why don't you and Kassidy explain to Melissa…why you are the way you are?"

Dusty took Melissa's hand and went over to the chairs. "Come on. Man. Jo's gonna wig when she sees he's back."

Dusty took a seat and Melissa awkwardly sat in the chair next to him.

"So, Kassie, I wanna know everything!" Dusty said excitedly. "What have you been up to?"

"Not much. I'm heading off to college this coming school year."

"Any idea what you wanna major in?"

"I've got some plans, but nothing's set in stone yet."

"That's awesome! We've really missed you around here."

"I've missed being here," Kassidy said softly as she took a look around her. What she wouldn't give to have been able to stay with her mother and help all these guys chase storms.

Dusty looked at her sadly and decided to change the subject. He began talking to Melissa about the tornados and what they studied and everything.

Melissa was looking at him very unhappily, as if this was the worst situation she had ever been forced into in her whole life.

While he did that, all of the other members of the team came over to Kassidy and hugged her, glad they could see her for the first time in years. She still remembered all of them and most of them looked the same. Rabbit, Laurence, Joey, Sanders, Beltzer, Haynes, and Preacher. Most kids grew up with other kids, she grew up with storm chasers.

Eventually, the team went back to their jobs. That was when Jo walked over. "Kassidy," she said to her daughter.

"Mom."

Dusty and Melissa looked between the two women awkwardly as the tension in the group became very, very thick.

"Uh, hi," Jo said looking over at Melissa. "I'm Jo Harding."

Melissa stood up to shake her hand. "Oh, hello, nice to meet you."

"Bill just told me the happy news."

"Which?"

"Us, marriage," Bill said.

Kassidy smiled a bit. It was every man's worst nightmare when past wife and current girlfriend met.

"Jo, Melissa," Bill introduced.

"It's happy news," Jo smiled.

Kassidy knew that smile right off the bat as a fake one. She used that smile nearly every day since the split. Was her mom still in love with her dad?

"I guess, uh, it probably seems kind of sudden," Melissa said to Jo.

"Seems sudden?" Jo said in surprise.

"Dude, you taking the vows?" Dusty asked with a smile. "That's sweet!"

"Well, we—we just wanted to get it done before Billy started his new job," Melissa continued.

"That's right!" Jo said. "That's right, I remember. Weatherman!"

"What?" Bill asked with annoyance in his tone.

"What?" Jo asked innocently.

"Say it."

"I said weatherman, I think it's great."

"How come you had that tone?"

"There was no tone if you have a problem being a weatherman."

"I don't have a problem being a weatherman."

Kassidy rolled her eyes. Her parents just couldn't help but argue with each other, specifically her father. That was one thing she hadn't missed: all the bickering.

Melissa's phone rang, so she fished through her purse and answered it. "Dr. Melissa Reeves here. Uh-huh."

"Just wanted to say hello," Jo whispered before shaking her hand again. "Very nice to meet you." She turned to her daughter and put her arm around her shoulders. "Kass, come here." The two women walked away from the couple. "How's life with Dad been, kiddo?" Jo asked.

Kassidy shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, I guess."

"Just fine?"

"Isn't that what you want to hear? That your daughter's happy?"

"Of course that's what I want to hear. But I also don't want you to lie to me."

Kassidy was about to say more, but Bill walked over to them.

"New truck?" Jo asked Bill, looking at his bright red vehicle.

"That's right," Bill answered.

"Boy, oh boy. New job, new truck, new wife. It's like a whole new you!"

"Jo…"

"This is very awkward."

"I know, tell me about it."

"I thought you'd be coming out here alone."

"I wasn't expecting on coming out here at all. You said you'd meet me—"

"It's about Dorothy," Jo interrupted.

"Dorothy? What about her?"

"She's here."

"Show me."

Jo went over to her truck and unveiled her and Bill's creation from their time together. Kassidy knew it was basically a lifelong project for both of them, and despite it all, she was rather excited that they had finally gotten it up and going.

"I can't believe you did it," Bill said in awe.

"We built four of them," Jo told him.

"She work?"

Jo opened the truck bed to allow Bill to climb in and look at it for himself. He scoured every part of it, thrilled his idea had finally taken form.

"Thought you'd want to be here for her first time out," Jo smiled. "It wouldn't be right if you weren't here."

The rest of the team came over to where the three of them were.

"This is gonna be good!" Joey laughed.

"How sweet is that?" Dusty said to Melissa. "Bill's concept, man. Boom! The Extreme. Man, it came from his brain."

"I had a hand in it," Bill said modestly.

"Wow, it is great," Melissa said. After a pause, she added, "What is it?"

"It's an instrument pack for studying tornadoes. First one in history."

"It's very exciting," Jo explained. "Scientists have been studying tornadoes forever, but still, nobody knows how a tornado works. We have no idea what's going on inside because no one's ever been able to take scientific measurements from inside the funnel. That's what she's gonna do."

"How?" Melissa asked.

"We put her up inside a tornado." Jo opened up the device and showed her what was inside. "She opens up, and releases hundreds of these sensors that measure all parts of the tornado simultaneously."

"You see, Melissa, it's like this," Bill said to her. "These sensors go up the funnel, and radio back information about the internal structure, wind velocities, flow, asymmetry. We could learn more in 30 seconds than we have in the past 30 years. Get a profile of a tornado for the first time."

"And what will that do?"

"If we knew how a tornado really worked, we could design an advance warning system."

"Aren't there already tornado warnings?"

"Well the—"

"They're not good enough," Jo interrupted again. "They're nowhere near good enough. Right now, it's three minutes. If we can get this new information, we can increase warning time to fifteen minutes."

"Give people a chance to get to safety," Bill added. "At least that's what these guys are trying to do!"

The team started cheering as Jo and Bill hopped down from the truck.

"I can't believe you actually did it," Bill said to Jo.

"Well, we did it," Jo answered.

"How do you get it in the tornado?" Melissa asked.

"Well, you got to get in front of the tornado and put it in the damage path," Bill answered. "And then get out again before it picks you up too."

"It's the suck zone," Dusty said in her ear.

"Oh," Melissa said, looking like she wanted to get away from Dusty at any costs.

"Jo!" Haynes called, running up to the group as she hung up the phone. "We got major action! The NSSL says the caps are breaking, the tower's going up to 30 miles up the dryline!"


	2. First Tornado

Jo looked up at the sky for a second, then turned back to her team members. "All right, let's go!" she ordered. The chasers began furiously packing up everything and getting into their vehicles to go find the latest storm and get Dorothy up and running.

Jo looked at her daughter. "You wanna come, Kassidy?"

Bill took Kassidy's arm. "No, thanks," he answered for her. "We gotta get back on the road."

 _I can answer for myself, Dad!_ Kassidy wanted to scream. She forced herself to stay silent.

"Well, it was good to see you both again."

"Come on, Jo!" one of the chasers called to their leader.

"I'm coming!" she yelled back.

"Come on, Kassidy," Bill said as he wrapped his arm around Melissa. The three of them started heading back to Bill's truck. "They can handle this," Bill said to his fiancée. "They know what they're doing. I mean, well, this is what they do, they live for this."

"Are you sure you don't want to go along?" Melissa asked.

"No. Oh, with them you mean?"

"Well, yeah."

"No, they'll be fine."

 _I want to_ , Kassidy thought to herself. _But you never cared about what I thought._

"Did she sign the papers?"

"Oh, shoot!" Bill exclaimed, pulling out the divorce papers.

"She didn't?"

"Come on, if we hurry we can still catch them!"

Kassidy smiled, happy that she would get to spend more time with her old friends for at least a little while longer. It was better than going back home. Anything was better than that.

They all started running to the truck in order to keep up with the chasers.

"Hey, Bill!" Rabbit yelled from the passenger side of his camper. "Glad you're back!"

"I'm not back!" Bill insisted. They all got into the car and started speeding after the others. "Once we catch up with them, you and Kassidy take the truck and head home," Bill told Melissa. "I'll get the papers signed and see you tonight. Okay?"

"No!" Melissa smiled. "You know what, honey, I find this kind of interesting. I'm gonna tag along! Besides, Kassidy deserves a little more time with her mother."

Kassidy smirked in the backseat, but did not allow herself to be heard.

Suddenly, a big black van pulled up next to them.

"Jonas," Bill murmured.

Kassidy looked over and saw a man she loathed even more than her parents sitting in the passenger seat. She had met him back when she was in elementary school and right off the bat, she didn't like him. Especially since he kept hitting on her mother.

"Who is that, honey?" Melissa asked.

"Jonas Miller. He's a nightcrawler. We all started out in the same lab, but Jonas went out and got himself some corporate sponsors. He's in it for the money, not the science. He's got a lot of high-tech gadgets, but he's got no instincts. And he doesn't have Dorothy." Bill grabbed the radio in the truck and switched to Jo's channel. "Jo, come back!"

"Hey there, you change your mind?" Jo smiled.

"Yeah, what's Jonas doing here?"

"I'm not sure. But I bet he's asking himself the same question about you."

Another van pulled next to them and got too close to the truck, forcing Bill to go off the road. They bumped across several pipes, bouncing Kassidy all over the place.

Due to some tire problems, Bill was forced to pull over with the rest of the team and stop at an auto repair shop to get it fixed.

"How long do you think it'll take to fix?" Bill asked the repair man as he rolled a new tire out of the trunk.

"Oh, maybe 10 minutes, 15 tops," the man answered.

"Sounds good."

Kassidy leaned against the truck when she looked over and saw Jonas and some of his guys with what appeared to be some news reporters around him.

"What drives me is the unknown," the jerk explained. "What if we could predict a tornado's path? How many lives would be spared with the creation of an early warning system? And D.O.T. 3 is the answer! The first digital orthographic telemeter."

Kassidy watched in anger as he pulled out a nearly exact replica of the machine Bill had designed. She really didn't like that man.

"And inside, she holds hundreds of these little sensors," he continued with this stolen idea. "Which when released into the tornado, will transmit back data on wind speed, pressure, and dew point temperature."

"Bill?" Jo called, looking over at him

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Dad…" Kassidy said, knowing his temper was going to get him in trouble again.

She tried to stop him, but he wrenched himself out of her grasp and stormed over to the group. He flipped Jonas's hat off and grabbed him by the collar, pushing up against his stolen machine.

"You stole my design!" Bill yelled. "What'd you think, I wasn't gonna find out about this? "

"Hey, guys, can you get this loser off me?" Jonas said as if Bill was a gnat.

Jo's team along with Kassidy ran over and pried Bill off Jonas.

"What is the matter with you?" Jonas demanded.

"You stole my design!" Bill yelled again.

"What are you talking about?"

"Dorothy! You took her, you no-good thief!"

Jonas smiled smugly. "Oh, I get it. You want to take credit for my design. Is that it?"

"You're a liar. She was our idea and you know it."

"Unrealized idea. Unrealized."

Jo ran over to the group and got in between Bill and Jonas. "Hey, hey, hey, hey! All my guys, get a grip on yourselves. We both know he'll never get that thing up in the air."

"Well let me enlighten you people!" Jonas said, closing his machine. "This baby has satellite com-link. We've got on-board pulse Doppler, we've got NEXRAD real time. Today, we're gonna make history. So stick around. 'Cause the days of sniffing the dirt are over."

"Better than what you sniff," Rabbit muttered.

"We'll see who gets their first, pal," Bill growled, watching the team walk off.

Jonas turned around with a smug smile on his face. "Oh, and by the way, I really enjoy your weather reports!"

Bill tried to go after him again, but the team held him back once more. Kassidy had to admit that she was now resisting the urge to punch that guy in the face herself.

"Come on, Kassie," Dusty said, leading her inside. Kassidy walked into the shop with the rest of the guys to get something to drink.

She was leaning on the counter, listening with amusement to her mother tell off Jonas behind her, when Melissa came and sat down next to her.

"Two lemonades to go, please," she said to the waitress.

"Want anything, sweetie?" the waitress asked Kassidy.

"Just an ice water, please," Kassidy answered.

"Nothing changes," Jo muttered as she came and stood between Kassidy and Melissa.

"Pardon me?" Melissa said.

"He's gonna wait and see what Bill does." She turned to the waitress. "Can I have a coffee to go, please?"

"That man's waiting for Billy? Why?"

"Because Jonas doesn't know his foot from his butt, and couldn't get that machine working with a dumb brain like his," Kassidy answered.

Jo smiled a little at her daughter's response. She had taught her well. "Bill can tell when a storm is coming from miles and miles away. It's like an instinct."

"So you're telling me Billy knows what a storm is thinking?" Melissa asked.

"Something like that." She held out a pack of gum for her. "Gum?" Melissa shook her head. "My Aunt Meg used to call him a human barometer."

"Well he never really told me about all this."

"If you have to pee you should do it now, 'cause there's not many places to stop once we get on the road."

There was a few seconds of silence between them before Melissa asked, "You're still in love with him, aren't you?"

The silence that followed gave them their answer. Kassidy was almost in disbelief. Her mom really did still love her dad? She always assumed the feeling was mutual.

"Check please," Jo said, trying to get off the subject.

"Not that I blame you. I just hope this isn't some desperate attempt to keep him in your life."

Jo put some money on the counter with both of the receipts. "We're together." She tossed Melissa an awkward smile and left the counter.

Kassidy looked at Melissa. "Please don't talk to my mother like that."

Melissa eyed Kassidy a little. "I thought you didn't even like her."

"No, I'm angry with her. There's a difference. And no matter what, she's still my mom, and you're about to replace her, so just show her a little decency, please." Kassidy left the counter. Melissa hadn't been awful until that moment right there. She could invade in her life, and she could steal Bill away, but she drew the line at her being rude to her mother when it was clear she already got the guy.

Melissa headed back out, and it wasn't long until Kassidy followed. From the looks of it, the storm was starting up because everyone was once again packing up and driving off.

"Kassidy!" Bill yelled to his daughter. "Ride with Melissa! I gotta go with Jo!"

Kassidy groaned before running over to the truck and hopped into the passenger side. They drove off and Kassidy smiled as she heard Dusty's large camper belting out some rock song. She rolled down her window and listened to the various songs the chasers played in their vehicles. Kassidy stuck her head out the window and felt the wind rushing in her blonde hair. It was nice and exhilarating.

Melissa's phone rang next to her and she fumbled with it while trying to keep a hand on the steering wheel.

"Dr. Melissa Reeves here." She looked over at Kassidy. "Kassidy, will you roll up the window, please? I'm on an important phone call."

Kassidy bit her cheek and pulled herself back into the truck as she was forced to listen to Melissa give some kind of freakish advice to one of her patients. She looked over towards the field and saw a tornado touch down onto the ground. Her stomach flipped a little in excitement. She loved storms, always had. And it had been a long time since she was able to be this close to one. She blamed Bill for that.

Melissa finished her phone call and they both watched the tornado rip things apart before finally dissipating. They were just about to catch up the rest of the group when Jo's truck landed right in front of them. Melissa and Kassidy screamed as Melissa tried to avoid hitting the truck. Once she was out of harm's way, Kassidy just rolled her eyes as Melissa still sat there screaming and hyperventilating as she climbed out of Bill's truck.

She herself climbed out and started laughing as the rest of the members came over to her to make sure she was okay.

"Are you kidding?" she exclaimed. "I'm more than okay! That was awesome!"

Bill ran up and hugged Melissa tightly. "You alright?" he said, taking a brief glance at Kassidy.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. It was clear to her that he wasn't really listening, and was focused more on calming Melissa down.

Both of her parents were filthy and she guessed they must've gotten caught right in the middle of that tornado. She wondered what that must've been like, but could only imagine the adrenaline rush.

As she looked out at the sky, she thought back on all the times she wanted to help her mom and dad chase some storms, but they didn't allow her to come. Or more specifically, Bill didn't allow her to come.

She turned at the sound of cars approaching and saw Jonas's crew driving up. None of them bothered to stop.

"Fashionably late again, Jonas?" Dusty called to the black vans, following them as they drove. He dove into the car window. "Fashionably late! Gimme a kiss, baby!" He got shoved out of the car and yelled as the other vans passed, "Loser! Loser! Move on!"

Kassidy smiled a little at her old friend's actions. He was always there to perk everyone up at the end of the day. She had missed him the most.

"Come on, guys, let's get Dorothy 2 ready!" Haynes ordered.

Jo started pulling things out of her destroyed truck. "You got full coverage on that truck?" she asked Bill.

Bill smiled, knowing full well what she wanted. "Liability only."

"Liability only?" She grabbed some things then looked back at them. "It's a very pretty truck."

"Thank you," Melissa smiled, oblivious to the request Jo was implying.

Bill laughed nervously. "Don't even think about it. No way."


	3. Round Two

And that's when Kassidy found herself and Melissa in the back of Bill's truck chasing after another tornado. While she was loving every second of it, every moment she spent here only reminded her of what she had been missing because she hadn't been able to stay with her mother after the split.

"This is the caboose, this is the caboose! I'm waiting for orders, Boss!" Dusty said over the radio.

Both Jo and Bill made a grab for the radio to answer him and their hands awkwardly touched. They tried again, but the same thing happened.

"Go ahead," Bill said.

"It's your truck."

"No, really. You should."

Jo picked up the radio mic. "Dusty, the battle zone should be northeast of 81."

"Copy that, Jo," Dusty answered.

"Wait a minute, battle zone? Billy, what're we doing?" Melissa asked.

"We're going again," Bill answered with a smile.

"Again? But back there, you almost got yourself killed!"

"No, no, just a close call."

"You're gonna cross 15 on Oklahoma 412. 412," Rabbit said over the radio.

"Okay, copy that," Jo answered back. "Haynes, what's on the mesonet?"

"Winds continuing to back, VIL's are at, uh, 60," Haynes explained.

"Okay guys, let's go get it!"

Jo leaned over and looked at the speedometer to find they were only going 50. She slapped her hand to her forehead and groaned quietly. Bill shook his head with another smile and jammed the gas pedal.

They kept driving and eventually pulled up next to Jonas's crew.

"There's your pal," Jo said.

Bill and Jonas looked out their windows and gave each other fake smiles. The tornado had formed and could be seen right in front of them. Suddenly, Bill slammed on the brakes.

"What're you doing?" Jo demanded.

Bill looked out the windshield. "Look at the updraft, the angle! It's gonna shift it's track!"

"Are you sure?"

"Oh yes. It's definitely a sidewinder! It'll move left."

"Is that bad?" Melissa asked, but Bill held his hand up signaling he couldn't talk to her at the moment.

"Wasn't there a road back there?" he asked Jo.

"You're right. Go, go, go, go!"

Bill put the truck in reverse and sped back to another road. As they drove down it, Melissa's phone rang again.

"Hello?" she answered. "Donald, now's not a very good time for me, okay? What…all right, put Julia on. Okay."

Kassidy rolled her eyes again. Now was not the time for Melissa to be giving out advice. Her patients could wait. They were chasing a tornado, for heaven's sake.

"We're close," Bill said as it began to rain.

Jo put on a headset. "Rabbit, tell me what road we're on. Where does this take us?"

"I know it feels unnatural," Melissa continued on the phone, "but with Donald's motility, you're not gonna have this baby the old-fashioned way. Even if you stand on your head."

Jo gave a questioning look to Bill.

"She's a…reproductive therapist," he told her almost as if embarrassed.

"Laurence?" Jo said into the radio. "Laurence come in, we've got to get ahead of this storm. What's on the satellite?"

Melissa looked up at what was ahead of her. "I can't talk to you right now, I'll have to call you back," she said as she hung up.

"Twister south, skipping south, shifting to south, we have an F2, ladies and gentlemen, possibly F3," Laurence explained. "You with me? It's a very, very large rope on the ground. Very large. Right on the ground."

"It looks like it's turning, it looks like it's turning," Joey's voice came across. "The atmosphere is very unstable! Repeat, unstable!"

"This is Rabbit, this is Rabbit, it's at 2:00, it's headed this way!"

"This is Sanders, this is Sanders! We're driving due east on a country road we've been on for about 6 miles. We've got an F3, two sitting on the ground, and she's a beauty! WHOOHOO!"

"Jo, it's Barn Burner, it's Barn Burner! It's not gonna hang out long. It's not hanging out long!"

"We got it, we got it, we see it!" Jo told them all.

Kassidy's head started spinning as everyone fed Jo information at once. She admired her mother for keeping all of that straight.

The sky was extremely dark and scary looking, especially for the middle of the afternoon. The rain started coming down even harder and lightning and thunder crashed all around them.

"We're getting slammed in here, guys. You better hang back," Bill told everyone through the radio.

"This thing loaded?" Jo asked, referring to his camera.

"Yeah, go for it."

Jo started taking pictures when she looked at the rain on the window. "Rain bands."

"What?" Melissa said, clueless to everything that was going on.

"Look at the surf coming off those fields."

"Horizontal rain," Bill said. "Hang on!"

He floored it and they started driving towards a bridge over a lake. The tornado was sucking up the water and it looked unlike anything Kassidy had ever seen in her whole life. It was incredible!

"Bill, I've never seen it clouded like this," Jo remarked.

"I don't think anybody has."

"Bill…we're in the core."

Suddenly, the twister on their left side split right in two!

"Okay, we've got sisters!" Bill exclaimed.

Melissa's phone rang again. "Yes?! Julia, I can't talk to you right now!"

Her patients really didn't call at very good times…

"We're right under the flanking line," Jo said.

"I realize that."

"We can't attack this thing from the south, we're gonna get rolled!"

"Watch me."

"Julia, I know you're upset, you just gotta breathe, we've both just gotta breathe!" Melissa told her patient as she took some deep breaths herself.

Kassidy's mouth dropped as she watched a cow fly past them.

"Cow," Jo said in shock.

"I gotta go, Julia, we got cows!" Melissa said and Kassidy couldn't help but giggle at the thought of her patient's face on the other end of the line.

She looked out and saw another cow fly past them in the other direction.

"Another cow," Jo said.

"Actually, I think that was the same one," Bill told her. "We've got drunkards here, we've got no path!"

"This is not good, get us out of here!"

"I'm trying, okay?!"

"Floor it!"

When Bill realized that he couldn't get out of the path of the three oncoming tornados, he slammed on the brakes. The tornadoes came closer and closer to them until they were right on the middle of it. The truck started circling around, and Melissa started screaming as Kassidy clung onto Jo's seat for dear life.

Finally, all the tornadoes dissipated again and the passengers were silent for a few seconds. Then Bill and Jo took one look at each other and hopped out of the truck, hugging and laughing.

Kassidy got out and joined them while Melissa looked rigid.

Jo hugged her daughter excitedly as Bill looked over at Melissa.

"Oh, oh, honey!" he said going over to her.

Jo and Kassidy looked after them, then turned their heads as the rest of the team drove up. The two of them ran over to them.

"Did you see that?!" Jo exclaimed.

"It was amazing!" Kassidy added.

The team got out of their vehicles and hugged the two women.

Kassidy couldn't stop smiling. What a rush! She hadn't been so happy in a long time, and she wanted to see more. It was like a drug and she was now addicted after getting a little taste of it.

Everyone went over to the truck where Dorothy was.

"I was thinking," Laurence stuttered, "it may not be too bad of an idea if we just got out of here. 'Cause that was definitely too many tornadoes back there…"

"Come on, don't be a spoil-sport!" Kassidy said, playfully punching him on the arm.

"That's my girl!" Jo smiled. "She's right! Are you kidding? This thing's not over, we've only seen the start of it!"

"Hey, you know what, uh, Jo, somebody couldn't help but notice how close we are to Wakita," Rabbit said.

"No!" Jo said firmly.

"Yeah, and Aunt Meg wouldn't mind a pit stop, right?" Sanders added.

"No!"

"Red meat, we crave sustenance!" Dusty told her.

"Guys, we are not invading my aunt!"

They all started chanting 'FOOD!' and Kassidy smiled up at her mother.

"Hey! We are absolutely not going!"

Just like Kassidy predicted, her mother caved in a matter of seconds.


	4. Aunt Meg's

Kassidy grinned as she and the rest of the team pulled up at her Aunt Meg's house. She loved that woman more than anything else in the world.

"Billy!" she exclaimed when she saw the driver of the truck.

"Meg!" he called excitedly. He helped Melissa get out of the car. "Come on, honey!"

Kassidy got out of the truck as well and looked at Meg.

"Kassidy, is that you?"

Kassidy ran over to her great-aunt and hugged her tightly. "Hey, Aunt Meg!"

"Oh, I haven't seen you in ages."

"Yeah, you can thank Dad on that one."

As if on cue, Bill came up behind her and hugged Meg. "Oh, it is so good to see you!" she said as he hugged him.

"Good to see you too."

"Day before yesterday, I was telling Jo how much I miss you! You haven't seen any of my new work!" She looked over at Jo and hugged and kissed her. "Jo! Oh honey! Seen some action?"

"You should have seen it," Jo said with a smile and a wink to Kassidy.

Meg turned to the rest of the team. "My boys!"

The rest of the members of the team all hugged Meg before heading inside for some of Meg's famous meals.

"Hey, Kass, why don't you help us in the kitchen?" Jo asked.

"Sure, Mom."

Jo, Kassidy, and Meg all went into the kitchen and started cooking up some beef, eggs, mashed potatoes and gravy. Melissa kind of awkwardly stood to the side.

"So be straight with me, hon," Jo said to her daughter as they cooked. "What's really been going on with you?"

"It's nothing really," Kassidy answered, trying to be careful about what she said with Melissa in the same vicinity.

"I don't believe you. Come on, I'm your mom. I know when you're lying."

"Well, I really miss all of this. You know, getting to hang out with these guys, chasing storms, the whole deal."

"Life with Dad isn't terrible though, is it?"

"No, I just wish I had gotten to stay here with you."

"You wanted to stay with me?"

"Of course. Everything is way more interesting and fun here. I've spent nearly every day since the split wishing I was back here."

"Why didn't you say something then?"

"I did. To Dad. I guess he never passed the message. You really didn't know I wanted to stay with you?"

"No, I thought you wanted to go with your dad."

Kassidy furrowed her brow. So maybe she shouldn't be so mad at her mom when she didn't know that Kassidy wanted to be with her. Besides, she was probably too upset about Bill leaving in the first place that she was still too much in shock to do anything.

Jo grabbed a tray of beef and led Melissa to the dining room. "You guys, look out, make a space." The guys moved to make room for Melissa and she awkwardly sat down while Kassidy grabbed a seat next to Rabbit. Jo put a huge chunk of beef onto her plate for her.

"Geez, Meg, you've got a lot of beef," Rabbit remarked. "Where'd you get all this beef?"

"Did you see my cows out front?" she asked him.

"No."

Meg gasped playfully for him.

"You slaughter your own cows, Meg! Nice," Dusty laughed. He slapped a huge helping of mashed potatoes onto Melissa's plate.

Jo then put some gravy out on the table. "Better grab some while you can," she told Melissa.

"Meg's gravy is famous," Dusty said to her. "It's practically a food group."

"Shower's free!" Bill called as he came down the stairs, buttoning up his shirt.

"I'm next!" Jo called.

Bill came into the dining room and held a plate full of food up at Bill. "Oh, I want that," he said longingly.

Jo looked over at the TV where Jonas was being interviewed. "How can you watch this garbage?"

"Oh, pardon me, gentlemen. You guys gotta see this," Bill said, turning up the volume on the TV.

Everyone, including Kassidy, began booing at the TV with the stuck-up jerk on the screen. They all watched him get interviewed, really milking it up. Kassidy really hated him.

"Oh, turn him off!" Haynes yelled.

"Aw, shut up!" Rabbit added. "Turn him off."

"He really is in love with himself," Jo said. "I thought it was just a summer thing."

"He's gonna rue the day," Dusty remarked. "Dude, he's gonna rue the day he came against The Extreme, baby. I'm talking imminent 'rueage'. Imminent 'rueage'."

Melissa looked at Dusty as Bill and Kassidy sat down at the table with a plate full of food. "I was just wondering why do you call Billy 'The Extreme'?"

"'Cause Billy is the extreme."

"Bill is the most out-of-control guy in the game!" Preacher said, coming over to the table.

Bill looked over at Jo. "No, I think I came in second."

"Well, I've seen The Extreme in high gear," Dusty said.

"You guys need to get some new stories," Jo told them. "I'm gonna go clean up." She headed upstairs to go shower.

"So we get this one near Dalton," Dusty began. "We're way too close, and Jo's got the vid on it, she's filming it, right. And all the sudden, out of nowhere, this awful-looking valiant comes pulling up, right in the way."

Beltzer came up behind Melissa. "She starts yelling. And this loser stumbles out of the car, he's got like, a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand. He's naked."

"He's _butt_ naked," Rabbit threw in.

" _Not_ naked," Bill insisted. "I was not naked!"

"He was without apparel," Beltzer said.

"Half naked."

"Naked," Dusty finished. "So, Jo is yelling at him to get out of the way, right. He just, he strolls up to the twister, and he says, 'Have a drink.' And he chucks the bottle into the twister, and it never hits the ground!"

"Twister caught it, and sucked it right up," Preacher said.

"Honey, this is a tissue of lies," Bill said to Melissa. "See there was another Bill, an evil Bill, and I killed him!"

Kassidy continued eating her food, but she was growing more and more upset as she listened to all of the chasers talk and laugh with each other, telling Melissa stories about Bill. Stories Kassidy didn't even know herself.

"No, that was a good size twister. What was that, an F3?" Preacher said, going back to the events of today.

"Solid F2," Bill told him.

"See now you've lost me again," Melissa said.

"It's the Fujita scale. It measures the intensity of a tornado by how much it eats.

"Eats?"

"Destroys."

"The little encounter we had back there was a strong F2, F3 maybe," Laurence told her.

"Bet we see some F4's today," Beltzer smiled.

"That'd be sweet!" Haynes agreed.

"4 is good, 4 will re-locate your house fairly officially," Bill said, leaning back in his seat.

"Is there an F5?" Melissa asked. The room grew very silent. "What would that be like?"

"The finger of God," Preacher said.

"None of you have ever seen an F5?"

"Just one of us," Bill said, looking upstairs where Jo was.

Kassidy knew that story just fine. The story of how her mother's dad was ripped away from her by a twister when she was only a little girl.

"Excuse me," Kassidy said, standing up. She headed outside to get some air, all of a sudden feeling very suffocated.

"Kassidy?"

She turned around to find her father walking up behind her, having followed her outside.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said flatly.

"Come on, you can talk to me."

Kassidy furiously turned to him. "Oh, really?"

"Kassidy, what's going on with you? I'm getting a little sick of your attitude."

" _My_ attitude? Dad, do you hear what they're saying in there? They're calling you 'The Extreme' and talking about all these crazy things you did! Did it ever occur to you that maybe I wanted a piece of that? I've loved storms ever since I can remember. I mean, I'm a Harding. It's in my blood."

"I guess I never thought—"

"You never thought about me and about what _I_ wanted."

"Now, wait a second."

"No! I _told_ you I wanted to stay with Mom! But you didn't listen to me and you took me with you. But you didn't really want me, you just wanted to prove your dominance."

"That's not true!" Bill argued.

"Really?! I can't even remember the last time you did something for me. You've been spending all your time with Melissa!"

"I thought you liked Melissa!"

"You're missing the point! You haven't attended a single one of my academic competitions, you never came to any of my award ceremonies, and you missed me getting awarded a very prestigious scholarship for full tuition to my dream school!"

"You…you won a scholarship?" Bill asked, now realizing why Kassidy was so angry with him.

"Yes, and when I tried to tell you about it, you were talking with Melissa and didn't even listen to me at all. You know what, you never even asked me about how I felt about you two getting engaged!"

"Yes, I did!"

"No, you _told_ me about it after you already proposed to her! Let's face it, Dad, ever since the split, you cared more about your stupid job and your new girlfriend than you ever cared about me!"

"Kass…"

"Don't call me that," Kassidy said firmly was she walked away from him.

Bill was taken aback. He had never seen his daughter so angry before. And she had every right to be angry with him too. Looking back on everything, he realized she was completely right. He had been ignoring her ever since he walked out on Jo, even more so once he started dating Melissa. The fact he didn't even know she had won a scholarship for full tuition really said it all right there.


	5. Confessions

They both headed back into the house and from the looks on everyone's faces, they had all heard the heated conversation that had just taken place.

However, no one had time to address it because Dusty started screaming, "We got one, baby! A mile outside Parlaine!"

Everyone hopped up from their seats, shoveling as much food as they could into their mouths, and took off outside.

"Kass!" Jo called. "Come on, you're riding with me." She and Kassidy took off outside as everyone scrambled about, yelling at the same time.

"Thanks for stopping by," Meg said as she hugged Jo and Kassidy.

"I'm sorry to eat and run," Jo apologized.

"It's what you live for. Oh, and Kassidy? Talk it out. Or it'll only get worse."

Kassidy smiled sadly, knowing she was talking about her argument with father. "I'll try."

Bill ran past Meg and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Good to see you, Bill!" Meg called.

While Melissa hitched a ride with Dusty, Jo hopped into the driver's seat as Kassidy squeezed into the back and Bill ran into the passenger's side. It was more than awkward for father and daughter, but they didn't really have much of a choice.

With that, they all went after the next storm.

"Rabbit?" Jo said into the radio.

"Hang on!" Rabbit's voice said back. "Uh, let's go right through Wakita, we'll take Myers Road past the fire station, and we'll take 132 to 44 east."

Bill grabbed the radio. "Rabbit, do you know any shortcuts? Let us know, we need every second!"

Jo sped down the road, trying to catch the next tornado.

"Okay, Rabbit, time to impress me!" Bill said.

"Okay, about a mile up, there's a little detour. We're gonna take a little walk in the woods!"

Jo kept driving as fast as she could, no matter what was in the road. Kassidy bounced all around in the back as she kept driving over a ton of bumps.

"Hey, it's bumpy here, folks!" Bill said when Jo drove over an exceptionally large bump. He turned to Jo. "Okay, let's get you wired." He began trying to hook up a headset on her, but he was getting really close to her and it was clear he felt very awkward which, despite it all, made Kassidy smile. "Okay, you're on!" he said once the headset was hooked up.

"See, kids? An ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations!" Beltzer's voice came across the radio.

"Repo man spends his life getting _into_ tense situations, Beltzer!" Dusty screamed back.

Kassidy smiled at her friend's craziness. How she missed getting to spend time with all of them.

"Okay, Rabbit, what have you got?" Bill asked into the radio.

"Okay, Bill, turn left here toward that farm."

"You sure about that?"

"Uh, yeah. Trust me. Rabbit is good, Rabbit is wise."

All the people in the truck rolled their eyes and kept driving, but no one really liked the look of where they were.

"This is a field, Rabbit!" Bill said losing patience.

"I know, keep going, beyond it, right through that brush! You see that brush right in front of you?"

"Yeah, we see the brush, what's beyond that?"

"Beyond what?"

"Beyond what?!" Jo and Kassidy yelled.

"The brush!" Bill yelled. "A brick wall, a bearded lady, what?"

"Oh, um, it's the highway, it's the highway!"

By now, everyone was driving though a cornfield.

"Where's the road Rabbit?!" Jo yelled through the radio.

Suddenly, they finally got out of the cornfield and onto the highway…right into Jonas's team. Jo swerved to avoid hitting any of them and Kassidy let out a scream of surprise in the back as she clutched onto the seat in front of her.

"You're insane, Jo!" Jonas yelled over the radio. "What are you trying to do, get somebody killed?!"

"Oh, really Jonas?" Jo yelled back. "It was so nice of you to stop back there and make sure we were all right!" Bill pulled the radio away from her. "It was very considerate of you! How could you see ten people on the side of the road and not stop?!"

"Okay, okay, okay, okay," Bill said calmly. "Keep the channel clear."

"Give me that thing," Kassidy said. She reached up between them and grabbed the radio. "Listen, Jonas," she said, not playing around anymore. "Get your head out of your butt and go back to being the burger mascot at Brad's Burgers!"

The silence that followed her words was deafening. Finally, Dusty said over the radio, "Jonas, you were the dancing burger?"

There was no reply from Jonas.

"How'd you find that one out?" Jo asked, smiling at her daughter's gutsy move.

"I did my research and made a couple of calls. I've been waiting to use that insult on him for years."

Bill and Jo looked at each other. At least they were doing something right.

Bill looked up at the sky. "We're gonna have to get off of this road."

"What?" Jo asked, not believing him. "This is no time to guess—"

"I'm not guessing. Just make a right turn. Trust me."

"Do you want to drive?"

"Just turn!"

Jo sighed and took a right turn and the rest of the members followed her.

"We got a touchdown, touchdown, tornado is on the ground," Laurence announced over the radio.

"Where is it?" Jo asked.

"Looks like it's coming down route 33!"

"Jo, we're on 33!" Bill told her.

"What's the path?"

"It's going about 35 miles an hour," Laurence said.

Everyone looked around them, but no tornado could be found.

"Direction, Rabbit!" Jo demanded.

"North, northeast," Rabbit responded.

"Do you see it?" Bill asked the girls.

"No," both Jo and Kassidy answered.

"Do you got anything up there?"

"North, northeast, you copy?" Rabbit said over the radio.

"Shoot, it's coming right at us."

"Actually, she's gone vertical, gone vertical," Laurence threw in. "This sucker's really gaining strength."

"Do you see it?" Jo asked, really losing patience.

"No," Bill said. He picked up the radio. "Beltzer, we don't have a visual. Repeat, we do not have a visual! Help us out, here!"

"Yeah, I got it, Billy," Beltzer answered. "It's the best motion I've ever seen! It's like the base of this fatty is about half a mile wide."

"Rabbit?"

"If you're going east on 7, it should be coming right over that hill in a matter of minutes!" Rabbit explained.

Bill searched up to the sky. "It's gotta be there."

"Maybe it's stalled," Jo said.

"No, I think Rabbit's right. It's gonna show it's ugly face right over that hill. Jo, what do you think?"

Kassidy looked ahead of her and saw a dark and swirly pattern in the sky, indicating a tornado was near. It made her stomach flop, but she loved that feeling more than anything.

"You gonna go for it, Jo?" Dusty asked over the radio.

"Time for deployment, guys, let's do it!"

They kept driving down the road while the rest of the team stopped to set up their equipment. Suddenly, pieces of ice began falling from the sky.

"Okay, we got hail," Bill remarked.

"Hail. We got hail," Jo told everyone through the radio. "Upflow, Beltzer, we have upflow, copy?"

"Yeah, Jo, I'm checking it, I'm checking it, she's almost up!" Beltzer replied.

"Bill, right now, this is it."

"I'll get her ready," Bill said. He unbuckled his seatbelt and began climbing towards the truck bed. Kassidy moved over, and she didn't miss the look he gave her as he passed her on his way to the machine. He slid outside and started getting hammered by the hail as he attempted to get the machine ready.

"Are you okay?" Jo shouted back to Bill.

"I'm alright, keep going!"

"Mom…" Kassidy whispered. They looked ahead of them to find a very large, dark tornado aimed straight for them.

Suddenly, pieces of wood and tress rammed the windshield.

"Debris! We have debris!" Jo said urgently into the radio.

Sirens went off from the machine as Bill continued to get it up and running. The tornado in front of them touched down, then dissipated a little before touching down again.

"Dusty, are you set up?" Jo asked. "We're not leaving 'til we get this!"

"Dad, how are you doing?" Kassidy shouted through the window as he got hit with hail and debris.

"I'm alright! She's almost ready!"

"Hold on! We're almost there, we're almost there!" Jo called.

Kassidy's mouth dropped as a fishing boat flew past the truck.

"Stop, this is fine!" Bill screamed.

"Wait, we got to get closer, just a little closer!"

Kassidy jumped as a tricycle landed right on the windshield.

"Okay, that's close enough!" Jo relented.

"Okay, hurry, get the tailgate!" Bill said.

"Come on, Kassidy!" Jo called to the backseat. Jo flung on her yellow raincoat and helped Kassidy out of the truck. The hail hit both of them painfully, but they tried to ignore that and keep going. "You got it?!"

"Yeah, she's all set, help me get her down!" Bill answered. "Hurry! Let's move!"

Kassidy watched as the tornado touched down again really close to them and a fiery explosion set off on the ground.

"Mom!" she called. "I don't think this is a good idea!"

"Kassidy's right!" Bill shouted. "We gotta go now, come on!"

"We can do this!" Jo insisted. "Come on!"

The tornado started sucking up the telephone wires right out from the ground.

"Mom, Dad, look!" Kassidy shouted.

They looked at the telephone poles, then at the one they were next to. It started shaking and then it sparked.

"Bill!" Jo screamed.

"Get down, look out!" Bill yelled as he grabbed the two women and got them away from the truck.

Kassidy and Jo screamed as the pole fell right on top of the truck, making all the sensors spill all over the ground.

They looked up at the sky and saw that the tornado was gone.

"Where'd it go? Where is it?" Bill asked frantically.

Kassidy continued looking up at the sky and saw the blackness swirling again. "It's back, Bill!" Jo said. She called out for everyone to hear, "Beltzer, it's backbuilding! We've got to track it!"

"Yeah, Jo, we know. Data's incomplete, I think you should get out of there, you copy?" Beltzer's voice came back.

Jo frantically began trying to pick up the sensors. "Bill, Kassidy, help. Help me!"

"Jo, we should leave!" Bill told her.

"No, no, no, help me. Help me!"

"Forget the sensors! We've got to get out of here now! It's gonna drop!"

He and Kassidy began pulling her back to the truck, but she furiously tried to get back to the sensors. "Beltzer will see! If it drops, if it's anywhere near us, it will kill us!"

"It's not gonna drop anywhere near us, it's gonna drop right on us!"

Bill pushed Jo and Kassidy into the truck before they got hurt. Kassidy gasped as her stomach flipped again as the tornado dropped back down right in front them. Bill began backing up to get away from the tornado which made Jo start freaking out, begging for him to go back.

Jo jumped out of the truck and began trying to pick up the sensors again, but they had sprawled all over the place and it was a futile effort. But Jo didn't see it that way.

"Jo, the pack's wasted, it's over!" Bill said as he and Kassidy got out of the truck.

"What's the matter with you?! We can still do this!"

"Listen to yourself, you're obsessed!"

"You've never seen what that thing can do, so don't even talk to me about—"

"I just saw it—"

The two of them started screaming and pushing each other and Kassidy frowned as she remembered all of their fights right before the split.

"You've never seen it miss this house, and miss that house, and come after you!" Jo said to Bill on the verge of tears.

"Jo, is that what you think it did?"

"I don't know…" She put her hands to her head and started walking away.

"Jo, why can't you just forget it?"

She turned back to him with a sad smile. "You don't understand, okay? You'll never know."

"When's it gonna be enough, huh?! How close do you have to get—" Furious she was still walking away, he grabbed her and roughly turned her around, forcing her to look at him. "Talk to me! Jo, things go wrong, you can't explain it, you can't predict it! Killing yourself won't bring your dad back. I'm sorry he died, but it was a long time ago. You gotta move on. Stop living in the past and look at what you've got right in front of you!"

"What are you saying?"

"Me, Jo. Look, I've already really screwed things up with Kassidy, but I don't want to lose her just like I don't want to lose you!"

Kassidy froze. She hadn't seen her dad like this in a long time much less speak words like that. Deep down, he really cared about her and her mother. He just needed help to make those feelings resurface.


	6. Drive-In

The team all went to a motel to relax and come to terms with the events that had taken place. There was an outdoor theatre set up where _The Shining_ was playing and _Psycho_ was scheduled after that.

Bill and Jo hadn't spoken since their outbursts, and now they were barely even looking at each other.

But Kassidy knew. She saw that look in their eyes. They were still in love with each other.

"Hey, Kassidy."

Kassidy turned to find Bill walking up to her with an awkward and uncomfortable expression on his face. Trying to heed Meg's words, she slowly walked up to her father.

"Look…" he started. "I've really messed up. A lot, and I'm so sorry. Nearly everything you said was right." He took a deep breath, picking his words carefully, not wishing to set off another fuse. "I should've been there for you more. Look, Kass, I know you wanted to chase tornadoes with your mom and I. I didn't let you come because I was afraid you would get hurt. You were just so young and I didn't want to lose you. But you were wrong about why I took you with me. It wasn't because I wanted to prove anything to anyone. I didn't want to be without you. I know you wanted to stay with your mom, but I hoped that I could get you to see that life was better with me. Instead, I did just the opposite. I got so caught up with everything in my own life that I didn't see that I was losing the very person I wanted to keep."

Kassidy looked at her father as he poured his heart out to her. She wished they had had this conversation long before now. Maybe then things wouldn't have been so bad with him. It was partially her own fault that she had allowed everything to build up inside her until she just exploded.

"Thanks, Dad. It means a lot to hear you say that."

"So does that mean we're okay?"

"Yeah," Kassidy smiled. "We're okay."

Father and daughter hugged for the first time in years. A real hug.

It felt nice to be in her father's embrace once more. She had longed for that feeling since her dad walked out on her mom. And now finally, she was granted that simple wish.

Bill then walked over to where Jo was ordering coffees for everyone.

Lightning lit up the sky followed by a crash of loud thunder. Something about the atmosphere just felt wrong to Kassidy. She looked up at the sky, trying to figure out what was going on. By the looks of her parents studying the sky intently, they thought something was off too.

She looked in the direction they were staring at and she felt her stomach drop to the ground, and not in a good way this time.

An absolutely colossal tornado was headed right for them.

"JO! BILL!" Dusty screamed, running up to them. "It's coming! It's headed right for us!"

"It's already here," Bill said. He looked around and screamed at the top of his lungs, "EVERYBODY UNDERGROUND NOW!"

Everyone started scrambling inside a warehouse to take cover from the oncoming destruction.

"BILLY!" Melissa screamed. Bill ran over to her and they both ran and followed the others.

Kassidy looked at her mother, transfixed by the sight of the monstrous natural disaster. She had to admit that it was absolutely fascinating, but if they stayed out here, they would get killed.

"Mom!" Kassidy yelled over the wind. "We gotta get out of here!"

Jo turned and banged on the glass concession stand. "Get underground!" she ordered. "Take cover right now! Let's go!"

Jo ran over to her daughter and grasped her hand before running to the warehouse. The large sliding doors were closed, but there was still a small side door they could get into.

Kassidy and Jo kept running, but stopped when they passed a truck. When she looked inside, she found Laurence huddled under the steering wheel.

"Come on, take my hand," she said firmly.

"I can't," Laurence stuttered.

"Take my hand!"

Laurence got out of the truck and the three of them ran inside the warehouse and clambered down into a small pit that would hopefully keep them all protected.

"Everybody down in the pit!" Bill screamed over the thunderous wind. "Get down! Let's go, everybody down! Jo, Kass, move, come on!"

Everyone stood in the pit, listening to the tornado get closer and closer. Suddenly, the windows smashed and glass flung towards the group. They all crouched down onto the ground to protect themselves from further debris that flung their way.

A lot of people began screaming as the very pieces that made up the roof of the place were torn off.

A hose began flying around that was spraying water everywhere. Preacher grabbed it and held it up triumphantly. His victory was short-lived when a hubcap came flying through the building and sliced his head.

Jo crawled over to him and placed her hand on the cut to stop the bleeding. "It's okay! It's okay! You're okay!"

Melissa was screaming things, but Kassidy was too focused on staying alive to really understand her.

A car rammed through the ceiling followed by another and one threatened to fall into the pit.

Kassidy felt a sharp pain on her head that made her see stars for a couple seconds and assumed that something must've hit her, but she couldn't tell what it was. It didn't take long for her to feel a trickle of hot blood slowly making its way down her face.

Her father let go of a sobbing Melissa and went over to Kassidy. Like Jo, he noticed her injury and put his hand to her head so she didn't bleed too much.

Kassidy realized then that he had spoken the truth. He really did care for her and wanted to protect her.

Ever so slowly, the harsh wind finally began to die down.

Once they were sure the coast was clear, everyone left the pit and looked at the massive amount of damage the tornado had caused. The whole place was trashed.

Bill was still holding his hand to Kassidy's head when they heard Jo ask Dusty, "Can you tell which way it's headed?"

"It's backing northeast. It's um…" He looked up at them with a grave expression on his face. "It looks to hit Wakita head on."

Everyone froze for a second before they all quickly climbed into the camper and started to prepare to get going.

"Come on," Bill said to Kassidy. "We'll fix your head on the way there. I'll drive!" He helped her into the vehicle and then went over to Melissa. "Hey, honey, it's Meg. I gotta go."

She turned to him with a stoic expression on her face. "I'm going back."

"Good, good, you'll be safe at the motel. I'll see you in the morning." He started to leave, but stopped when he heard her next words.

"I won't be there."

"What? Why? What are you saying?"

"I'm saying goodbye."

"No…"

"You know, I can't compete with this. I don't even know where to start!"

"Wait, don't do this now, please. Please!"

"Sooner or later it would have ended, we both know that."

"Please…"

"The funny thing is, I'm not that upset. What does that mean?"

"We can do it!" Rabbit yelled from the camper. "Come on, let's move!"

Bill turned back to Melissa. "I never meant for any of this to happen."

"I know, Billy, I know. It's okay. Look, to be honest, I don't think Kassidy was ever ready for someone to replace her mother. But I guess I was just so smitten with you that I didn't think about it. Well, now it's time to start thinking about her. I don't want you to lose your daughter, and I certainly don't want to be the one to come between you two."

"Bill, come on!" Dusty called.

"You go ahead. They both need you. I hope that Aunt Meg's okay."

"What about you?" Bill asked.

"Oh, don't worry about me. I know my way home." She walked away and Bill wished he had more time to feel upset. But the truth was that she was right. They hadn't thought about Kassidy for their entire relationship and it was part of the reason he had lost his daughter.

"Bill, come on!" Rabbit yelled to him.

Bill took one last look at his now ex-fiancée and headed to the truck to make it to Wakita.


	7. Last Chance

In the back of the camper, Beltzer helped fix Kassidy's injury while Sanders bandaged up Preacher's head.

"Ow!" Kassidy flinched as Beltzer touched her injury with some alcohol.

"Sorry," he murmured.

"It's okay. I know it's necessary."

"You're lucky you know. The damage could have been a lot more serious."

Kassidy slowly nodded as he continued to clean up the cut.

They made it to Wakita and looked around in horror at the completely trashed town. Houses were completely flat, debris was everywhere, and survivors of the storm hugged and comforted one another.

Everyone climbed out of their vehicles when they arrived at Meg's house. It looked ready to collapse any second.

The team stood outside with agonizing anticipation, waiting for some sign from Jo and Bill that everything was okay.

The house dropped a little, forcing the team members to run over to the house.

"MEG!" Dusty screamed. He started climbing up to the window. "Meg! Bill!"

"We're okay, we're coming out!" Kassidy heard her mother call out. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get an ambulance over here!" Bill yelled.

"Get an ambulance, Laurence, now! Go!" Dusty ordered.

Laurence ran over to the ambulance and two paramedics came over with a stretcher in tow.

Kassidy, Rabbit, Dusty, Beltzer, and Joey all helped Meg climb out of the house and get off the roof and to the ground.

"How about some steak and eggs?" Beltzer joked.

Meg laughed. "How nice of you all to come over!" she joked back.

Kassidy grimaced at the sight of all the blood coming from her head and on her chest. Everyone helped her lie down on the stretcher.

"Bill!" Meg called up. "Grab Mose for me! I think he's a little shaken up!"

Bill nodded. "Don't worry I'll get him." He went back into the house and came back out carrying Meg's dog.

Kassidy tightly gripped Meg's hand. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said to her.

"It looks like you've gotten a little beaten up too."

"Don't worry about me. I'm tougher than I look."

"You get that from your parents."

"Is she okay?" Jo asked the paramedic.

"We'll probably keep her overnight just to be safe," the man answered.

"Overnight? Forget it. I'm all right," Meg said. Kassidy couldn't help but smile at her great-aunt's attitude.

"You're going to the hospital," Jo told her.

"Okay, I'll go, but I'm gonna drive myself."

"Honey, your car is in a tree around the corner," Rabbit said to her.

Meg groaned and fell back on the stretcher before the paramedics took her to the ambulance.

As they wheeled her away, her house finally collapsed to the ground.

Jo went to Meg in the ambulance while Bill came over to Kassidy.

"How's the head?"

"I'll survive. See, Dad, I got hurt, but I'm okay."

"I know. You're my little girl, Kass. I'm just overprotective of you."

"Isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place?"

"You know, your mom always wanted to bring you along when we were chasing storms. You've got the exact same fire and stubbornness that she does."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You've grown into a very strong and independent woman. I'm very, very proud of you."

Kassidy smiled broadly at her father. She had wanted to hear those words from him for years.

Before she could say anything, Bill noticed Jo was out of the ambulance, so they both walked over to her.

"You all right?" Bill asked. "I thought you'd go to the hospital with Meg." Jo continued staring at something.

"Mom? Are you okay?" Kassidy said.

"What is it?"

Kassidy followed her mom's line of sight and got the exact same idea.

"I know how to make Dorothy fly," Jo told them.

Bill saw what the two women were looking at. "Of course. Of course!"

The three of them started marching back to the camper.

"All right, I need every aluminum can you can find!" Jo ordered the crew.

"We need cutters and duct tape!" Bill added. "Haynes, Beltzer, I want to get the last Dorothys on the back of my truck, and I want everyone working on it!"

While everyone, including Kassidy, rode in the camper and fixed up the sensors by cutting up aluminum cans and tying them to the spheres, Jo and Bill rode ahead in the truck.

Kassidy's mouth dropped when the biggest tornado yet came into view. It had to have at least a mile radius. That thing was even bigger than what they saw at the drive-in!

"Hey, Kassie," Dusty said to her as they worked on the sensors. "Did you see what happened between your dad and Melissa?"

"I saw them talking," Kassidy answered. "Why?"

"She broke up with him."

Kassidy's widened eyes looked up at him. "What?"

"Yeah, I think she saw that Bill still loves Jo. Or something like that."

Kassidy wasn't going to deny that she was kind of relieved. Melissa was great and all, but she really didn't want to deal with a step-mom. Especially when it just caused her dad to ignore her.

"Dusty, you ready for us?" Jo asked over the radio.

"Yeah, yeah, we're good! We're good? We're good? Very good!"

The vehicles stopped where Bill's truck was pulled off as he and Jo got the next Dorothy ready.

"We get them done?" Jo asked Dusty as he hopped out.

"I think so."

The team members all loaded up the new and improved sensors into the two Dorothy machines.

When the machines were filled and ready, Bill walked up to Kassidy. She was almost certain that he was going to tell her that she was going to ride in the camper with the others and have to stay away from the tornado.

"Kass, you're riding with us."

Kassidy laughed in surprise and hugged her father tightly. He hugged her back, loving the sensation of his daughter happily in his arms. He hadn't realized how much he missed that.

"Great job, guys, just be ready to report," Beltzer said. "Be careful, all right?"

"Don't follow us close," Jo told them as she got into the truck.

"All right, you got it, boss!" Joey said. "We're back in business!"

Kassidy squeezed into the back of the truck and they all took off after the tornado. The sky got darker and darker the closer they got to it.

"Half a mile more?" Jo asked.

"That sounds right," Bill answered. "I figure we'll put it right in the middle of the road."

"Unless you think somebody will hit it."

"Nobody will be there."

Bill quickly swerved to place the truck across the road, and all three of them raced out to get Dorothy ready. Kassidy helped her parents lift the machine from the back of the truck and place it on the ground. Jo turned it on and then closed the truck bed before they all ran and got back inside.

"Dusty, you in position?" Jo said over the radio.

"Yeah, we're prime, ready for contact!"

Jo looked over at Bill with a smile. "This is it."

"It's gonna work," Bill smiled back as they grabbed hands encouragingly. Kassidy watched from the backseat, elated that her parents were back to the good old days when they chased tornados together.

"Just another minute, Dusty!" Jo yelled.

"We're ready for it!"

Bill stopped the truck for them to watch history unfold.

"Kassidy, come here!" Jo said. She helped her daughter out of the truck, then got her video camera rolling. "Come on, come on, take her!"

"It's too light," Bill muttered.

"No, it's not!"

A tree fell from the tornado and threatened to tip the machine over, but it missed it by an inch.

"We're losing it!" Bill yelled.

"No, we're not! She can still fly!"

Another tree fell, and this one made direct contact with Dorothy and caused it to fall over, sending the sensors all over the road.

Jo sighed and closed her camera.

"Let's go!" Bill yelled urgently.

Jo frantically got Kassidy back into the truck, then Bill started to drive, but a tree rammed them and got under the wheels causing all of the passengers to nearly get whiplash. The car spun around before coming to a stop facing the giant tornado, unable to move because of the tree.

"Get us off this thing!" Jo cried. "Bill, kick it! BILL! Let's go! Right now! Hurry!"

Bill tried desperately to get off the tree as the tornado came closer and closer, but he just could not get the wheels off.

"What is that?" Jo asked, eyes glued to the tornado.

Bill stopped trying to floor it and looked at where she was staring. "What is that?" he echoed.

"Bill, hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"

A huge tank truck came from the tornado and headed straight for them. The tip of it knocked them loose from the tree and made them spin around again before it went back up into the air.

Bill floored it again and they drove as fast as they could. But they couldn't escape when the tank truck fell down again in front of them and exploded. With no other choice, Bill drove right through it and came out on the other side.

"Jo, Bill, Kassie, you all right?" Dusty cried over the radio. "Can you guys hear me? You okay?"

"We're okay," Jo answered.

"Jo, Bill, Kassie, did you see that explosion?"

Everyone looked at each other. "We saw it."

"Kass, you okay back there?" Bill asked.

"Are you kidding?" she breathed. "I'm great. This is the most fun I've had in years."

"This one, she's still moving northeast on 80, you copy?" Rabbit's voice said.

"This is it," Bill said. "Last one."

"Last time," Jo added.

Kassidy took a deep breath. So much was riding on this last machine. If they couldn't get this one inside the tornado, they would be right back at Square One.


	8. Reconciled

"They have to be there somewhere," Bill said, referring to Jonas's crew. "They have position. They could make it."

"Not unless they anchored the pack," Jo told him. She grabbed the radio. "Jonas? This is Jo. Can you hear me?"

"Not now, Harding," Jonas answered shortly.

"Jonas, listen to me. The pack is too light. The twister will toss it before it reaches the core. You have to anchor it."

"Oh, sharing valuable information, Jo? I'll consider that, thank you. And you can tell your little daughter that it don't bother me one bit that everyone knows I used to work as a burger."

Kassidy rolled her eyes. She knew for a fact he was lying.

"Jonas, listen to me! Don't be a—" She was cut off as Bill grabbed the radio from her. "What? Do you see them?"

"Jonas, what's your position?" Bill asked.

"Oh, howdy, Bill. We are heading northeast running parallel and about to pull ahead of it on the left, why?"

"Hang back a minute, we've got a pretty good view from back here. She could shift her track, and if she does, she's gonna come right at you! Do you copy?" There was a few more people speaking before he continued, "Jonas, listen to me. This is not—"

"Get off this frequency, Bill!" Jonas interrupted.

The three of them looked at the tornado again, which seemed to keep getting wider. "She's shifting," Jo remarked.

"Jonas, I'm telling you…Eddie, I know you can hear me! Turn around now! Get out of there!"

The tornado began shifting and they watched in horror as a radio tower slammed through the windshield, no doubt killing at least one of them. Then the tornado whisked the car into the air. It whirled around for a bit, then crashed to the ground in an explosion of fire.

Kassidy's heart nearly stopped. She didn't much like the guy, but that didn't mean she wanted him to die, especially not like that.

Bill angrily threw down the radio and banged his hands on the wheel.

"We tried. There's nothing we could do."

"Yes there is."

"Bill, Jo, Kassidy, ground speed is increasing," Beltzer told them. "Get ahead of it as fast as you can or she's gonna bury you!"

They kept driving when they heard a horrid crashing sound behind them. Looking back, they saw that the tornado was picking up tractors and trailers and then sending them right into their path.

"Debris! Dusty, we have debris!" Jo yelled.

"Debris?!" Bill cried.

"RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT!"

Bill swerved all over the road, trying to avoid the falling vehicles. "What now?"

"I have no idea."

"Bill, Jo, Kassie, you still with us?" Dusty asked.

Kassidy's mouth fell open when a house rolled right into their path.

"I think we're going IN!" Bill screamed.

Kassidy and Jo started screaming as they drove through the wall and several rooms before coming out on the other side.

"Maybe we should get off of this road," Bill commented.

"I think you may be right."

"Still okay, Kass?"

"Loving every second!" she called to him.

"That's my girl," Jo smiled.

"Jo, Bill, Kassie, you all right?" Dusty asked.

"Yes," Jo said through the radio. "You guys set up?"

"Jo, we're set. Going in?"

"We're going in."

"You ready?" Bill asked her.

"I'm on it."

"Be careful."

Kassidy moved over as Jo climbed into the back and opened up the window. She got Dorothy turned on and the sirens started going off again. Jo then crawled back inside and Kassidy moved to the middle again.

"She's up," Jo said.

Bill started driving through a cornfield in order to have the truck run right to the tornado.

"You ready?" Jo asked.

"Yeah. Let me just set the cruise control," Bill told her. "Okay we're good."

"Kass? Go out through the window there and jump off the truck bed."

"You got it."

"On three?"

"On three," Bill said. "Go."

Bill and Jo opened their doors and Kassidy climbed out the back while the truck still kept going forward.

"Ready?" Bill called.

"Ready!" Jo and Kassidy called back.

"One…two…three!"

All three of them jumped off the truck and rolled on the ground. After getting back up, they stood closely together as they watched the truck drive straight into the tornado.

"Go," Jo said, her voice full of hope. "Go. Go! Go! GO!"

The sensors released from Dorothy and then the whole truck, machine and all, went up inside the tornado. Dorothy was flying.

"YES!" all three of them exclaimed and hugged happily. "YES!"

"Oh no," Bill muttered. The tornado shifted and started coming straight for them. "RUN!"

Jo firmly held Kassidy's hand and they all dashed through the cornfield. They ran as fast as they could, which ended up being difficult because of all the tall stalks. Finally, they broke through the field and saw a farm.

"The barn!" Bill screamed. "COME ON!"

The tornado started sweeping up the picket fence behind them as they ran for shelter. Jo noticed an opening in the fence, and they quickly climbed through it.

"TO THE BARN!" Jo yelled.

They raced towards the barn, and stumbled in after managing to get the door open.

"Stay down!" Bill cried.

They looked up and saw sickles, knives, and other sharp objects hanging from the ceiling.

"Oh my gosh, who are these people?" Jo remarked.

"I don't think so!" Bill yelled. "Come on! Let's get out quick!"

Jo kicked the barn door open and they ran to try to find somewhere else they could be safe. The barn started getting sucked up as they ran away from it.

Bill tightly held Kassidy's hand, continuing to run from all the damage. He made her duck when a piece of the barn flew over their heads. Then he pushed her and Jo to the ground when even more debris flew over them.

They finally made it to a pumphouse and ran in, bolting the door behind them.

"Here!" Bill screamed. "These pipes go down at least 30 feet. We anchor to them, we might have a chance!"

"Bill!"

Jo and Bill grabbed some rawhide straps off the wall and secured them to the pipes. Then he helped Jo and Kassidy into the loops and tightened them onto their waists before tying one to himself so that he was in between them.

"Hold on!" he yelled.

The roof of the small house was ripped away as the tornado was finally right on top of them.

Bill clung onto the two women as they felt themselves lifted up into the air. All three of them grabbed onto the pipe and held on as tight as they could.

Kassidy could never put into words what happened after that. She was right in the very center of a huge tornado. She could see the blue sky at the very top and it was by far the most exhilarating moment of her life.

The storm dissipated and they were lowered back to the ground. The pipe had sprung a leak so the three of them were now drenched by the water.

"You both all right?" Jo asked as they sat up.

Kassidy took some deep breaths, trying to regain composure after such an experience. They laughed together as she watched her parents meet eyes and smiled at that look between them. The three of them undid the straps and freed themselves from the pipes.

"Wow, look at that. It didn't take the house," Bill noticed.

In the distance, they heard Dusty's loud music playing as the rest of the team drove up.

"We did it," Jo smiled, still out of breath.

"Yeah, we did. All of us," he said looking over at Kassidy. "Dorothy really flew."

"It was a good idea."

"Yeah. Well, I…"

"We've got so much to do."

"Yeah."

"I've got to get grant approvals for a new warning system, we need a bigger lab, we have to get Kass off to college, you've got to do an analysis of all that data…"

" _I_ do?"

"Yeah, we've got to generate models out of all this data, and I need to run the lab."

"Oh, no, no, no. You're doing the analysis, I'm running the lab."

"You're running the lab? I don't think so!"

Bill looked at her. "Do you always have to do things the hard way?"

The rest of the team members walked over to them.

"You got it guys, the sensors worked!" Haynes yelled triumphantly. "The computers went crazy, we've got data coming out of our ears!"

"Biggest twister ever recorded!" Beltzer laughed.

"Hey, Jo, Bill, Kassidy, check out that sky!" Sanders told them.

"You know what, I think we've seen enough," Jo said. She took Bill's head in her hands and tenderly kissed him.

Kassidy smiled wide at her parents' reconciliation. She always knew they belonged together. She looked over at Dusty and made a victorious fist to which he laughed.

Then she went over to them and got right in the middle as they all hugged tightly.

Her family was back together.


End file.
